ELC athletic director and former girls coach Brad Leonard lauded the group's accomplishment and the dedication needed to achieve what they did.

"I'd like to thank the seniors for these four years of basketball," said Leonard. "I'd like to thank the students and cheerleaders for their positive sport. It's also amazing the amount of fans we had.

This is a tribute to them to do the things that are not fun.

From the outside, it looks like a lot of fun, but much what they did is not fun." He continued, citing the early morning practices, the summer open gyms and shoot-arounds, the weightlifting and the practice.

Leonard said it wasn't fun when Sara Heywood had to rehab her knee after her freshman season.

It wasn't fun for Macy Dahl to play defense on the opposing team's best player every night.

It also wasn't fun for Maggie McCauley for being a role player.

It wasn't always fun for Casey and Allie Sievert to never missing an open gym.

It wasn't fun for Emily Kirchner showing up the morning after an away softball game the night before.

"What makes them special, is they would do it all again," said Leonard.

He said when the seniors were freshmen, he gave them the usual speech.

"You need to give everything you can to be successfully, because when you blink it's all over," he said. "We just blinked."

"You left this mark on this school and this community," he said. "All that is left to say is thank you and good luck in whatever endeavor."

ELC coach Tony Klein also thank the seniors and the girls for the season.

"Thanks to the junior varsity girls for being on the scout team," he said.

Klein noted the loss to Assumption hurts because of how much energy and effort the girls put into basketball.

"No trophy will every replace the memories," said Klein. "I with them all the best in the next chapter of their lives," he said.